Pushkar Camel Fair

A camel fairy tale…

Each year, during the preceding days of the Karthik Purmina full moon, a flock of dromedaries invades the outskirts of Pushkar, on the occasion of the biggest « mela « (fair) in India.
Then, in South of the Holy City, dunes metamorphose into a giant camp of breeders’ nomads, coming from Thar, the neighboring desert.
In this transhumance, we witness the daily life of the Rabari tribes whose features easily evoke those of Roma People.

Women, nostrils and wrists jeweled, are busy with daily tasks. Under the shimmering sheers of their saris, their silhouettes undulate with elegance.
Men, dressed in white dhotis, wear variegated turbans, whose colors mark their tribal membership. Mustaches curled, and earrings filigreed, they evoke the memory of what was this part of India while the Maharajas governed it.
Their days go by at the pace of trading, punctuated by food preparation, moments of rest and relaxing around puffs of opium.

Further on, strewed within the dunes, the following dromedaries forms a halo of dust …
In this dimly lit ocher, the big « mela » then takes a magical look, as though to tell us “Once upon a time, the Pushkar camel fair…”.